A bright sunny morning with barely any breeze. I chose Earlswood today, mainly because a little group of waders have found the bottom end of Windmill Pool to their liking, and just maybe something else would join them.
I duly located the Ruff, Green Sandpiper, Common Sandpiper, and Little Ringed Plover. Only the latter was new for me since my last visit, although it has been present all weekend.
A short while after establishing there was no change in the waders, I had a slice of good fortune when a small bird on the top of a distant chimney near the sailing club turned out not to be the House Sparrow I'd half-expected, but actually a Wheatear.
I don't keep an Earlswood list (partly because I split the site into Earlswood (Warks) and Earlswood (W Mids), the county line running roughly along the northern-western edge of Engine Pool) but I was still surprised to find I don't appear to have seen one here before. This year Wheatears seem to have been scarcer than normal, and this was only the second I have seen anywhere in 2025.
The remainder of my three hour visit featured most of the usual species, a dress-rehearsal for the West Mids All-dayer on Saturday. Highlights included a total of six Ring-necked Parakeets in various places, assuming they were all different, loads of hirundines of all three species, and a single Swift. That's one we'll be hoping stays for another week.
As 09:00 approached, a few butterflies were on the wing in the scrublands including a Small Copper. This species seems to be having a particularly good summer as there have been five times the usual number at Morton Bagot for instance.
A very attractive little creature it is too.
No comments:
Post a Comment